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Bugs Show 'Insect'
- Thread starter soundimageplus
- Start date
L0n3Gr3yW0lf
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Somerset, UK
- Name
- Ovi
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Woodlice and Springtails are becoming the most reliable subjects to photograph especially in the cold weather.
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It's better to find them in the grass than on the damp and dark ground.
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The tiny little Springtails, are surprisingly more difficult to photograph than they look.
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Very rare to find them sitting still and more often running like crazy up and down like ants.
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This is one of my favourite pictures of today, very simple composition with good emphasis on the little buggers.
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Springtails are very reliable to climb on little things like moss seeds or other objects to explore, a very good opportunity to getting lovely compositions. The gray in the background is cement and the bokeh comes from wetness reflecting light and making nice little blobs.
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They will climb anything and everything, like these baby moss.
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But my favourite part was when it started being a true explorer and was walking all over these mosses filled with water drops.
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Going upside down like a pro Spider-Man.
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I just love how all the tiny little drops looked like little orbs of the world reflected.
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Stopping down to much would to much of a sacrifice to the clarity because of diffraction so losing DoF was not the hardest decision to make in this case.
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Their numbers are not as great as in the summer so it can take some time and scouting to find them in the winter.
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A lonely little bug was walking about minding its own day until I started showing it with light.
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The cement has a strange mixture of colours and textures from the rain and the moss growing in every little corner it can stretch,
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Getting good composition comes down to perseverance and luck, keep shooting until you catch some interesting moment in their lives.
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I was about to lose this little bugger into crevices of darkness that they prefer to hide or hunt.
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This little fellow is too small for 1:1 magnification so some cropping needs to be done or start adding attachments or changing lenses for greater magnification.
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A different Springtail, this one did not have a water drop on its back like luggage after your parents kicked you out of the house. Another difficulty with Springtails is that the white and yellow ones can be very easily blown out because they reflect light so easily, often having hotspots or loss of texture, they need to be underexposed a little bit or local editing.
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The last of the little bugs that I could find today was this fly just walking on the moss.
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This is my new playground for macro in the winter. It's built with rocks and cement connections over the ground at the duck pond in my neighbourhood to keep the water from flooding (I think). Patches of moss grow everywhere and they hide the insects pretty well from the strong winds and the torrential rain.
L0n3Gr3yW0lf
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Somerset, UK
- Name
- Ovi
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The best part is being inclined on opposite ends it keeps the wind away so the vegetation and insects don't get blown away and I can get a nice good angle to their level by shooting towards them or even up and I can sit down so I don't put to much pressure on my knees ... but it will make me look weird to all the dog walkers that walk by every 10 minutes.
Irene McC
Legend
- Location
- CPT, South Africa
Taken with my phone while out walking with the cat in the garden - my son informed me that it's a ladybird in a larval state
- Location
- Western Oz
Aspidimorpha miliaris
Irene McC
Legend
- Location
- CPT, South Africa
24-Spot Ladybird Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata
24-spot Ladybird (Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata)
24-spot Ladybird from Greenham CP, Newbury, England, GB on June 3, 2022 at 06:09 PM by lublamai
www.inaturalist.org
- Location
- Western Oz
Delved closer and found the one I mentioned is an Asian variety. Found an ID on a South African photo site : Spotted Tortoise Beetle Conchyloctenia punctata . To quote the site: "They are common in South Africa and can vary from a copper colour to orange or red." The photo of the grub is a dead ringer.
Irene McC
Legend
- Location
- CPT, South Africa
Stick insect [Phasmatodea]
Fuji 80mm macro
Fuji 80mm macro
Last edited:
- Location
- Beaumaris, Melbourne, Australia
- Name
- John ...
Nothing like it, Ian. The larval stage is utterly different from that shown in Irene's photo. Also, the range is different, being SE Asia, not South Africa.
- Location
- Western Oz
Yes, I already said that John. I was misled by an incorrect larvae photo they included.
- Name
- Hendrik Demey
